While undoubtedly self-promotional in initial intent, PhotoShelter’s newly released SEO Cookbook offers plain-language guidance on how to optimize a photography Web site for best search-engine placement. The 30-page PDF file is available upon request and will be particularly useful for those who are daunted by marketing their work online.
To start, the Cookbook dispels some search-engine optimization myths: “[People] tend to think that the goal of SEO is to make sure your Web site comes up first when you type in your name. This is incorrect.” The goal is to ensure your Web site comes up first when people conduct searches using specific phrases, such as when they are looking for photographers in your area or images containing certain subject matter.
The Adorama-sponsored book covers the basics, such as where users eyes and clicks concentrate on a typical search-results page and Google’s domination of the search-engine space. More importantly, it offers practical advice and tool to develop and execute one’s own SEO strategy.
The Cookbook addresses keyword generation and available tools, such as Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool, and explains how to determine the relative priority ranking of various phrases. It also covers how such keywords and phrases need to be integrated into each page, with step-by-step instructions and useful tips, such as “DO NOT assume that a manufacturer’s claims are accurate regarding SEO support in Flash. If an entire site is built from Flash without an HTML mirror site, Google simply can’t see it. There is no version of Flash today that Google can accurately index for SEO, and links within the site cannot be followed by Google’s crawlers.”
Finally, the book discusses off-page SEO factors, which carry nearly 75% of the search-engine ranking weight but are the most difficult and time-consuming to build. Such factors revolve around the amount of inbound links, traffic and authority of a site, all of which indicate to Google the site’s relevance, credibility and popularity as they are associated with a given search term or phrase.
Throughout the publication, PhotoShelter explains how its Personal Archive service can assist with SEO. The New York company also discusses the usefulness of SEO consultants and offers a list of the most relevant SEO resources for do-it-yourselvers.